Wishing Well

Oh my! Be careful what you wish for.

I have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. Bored witless to frantic, in control to having no control.

I don't think I have made so many mistakes in a workplace before. It is so busy there is no time to learn the database system, it just goes over my head. The phone never stops ringing, there is always a customer in front of you waiting.

And I keep stuffing up.

They did tell me that it was busy, this is way past busy. Everyone comes into work at least a half hour early, (7.30am) trying to get things together before people start arriving.

You get an hour for lunch, but never take it because you know if you do things will back up. Fifteen minutes each for morning and afternoon tea, that just doesn't happen. Knock off is 5pm, the earliest I have finished is 5.30. We are paid 8 till 5, no extra.

I do however like the job, at least the day passes quickly. I don't like stuffing up though, it just causes others unnecessary problems, and precious time.

They are sending me to a quieter branch next week, where I will hopefully learn the system. If I don't, I guess I'll be unemployed again.

Wish me luck.

Vindication - No More Lies

Well, well. Guess what I received in the mail today?

Obviously a letter, but what sort of letter? All the "manipulated" truths (non truths) from my employer over the last months have finally caught up.

They have gone into voluntary administration, and both G and I are creditors, we are owed just under $5000 in unpaid Superannuation. The letter was from the Administrator.

Now I feel vindicated in a way, because others who called me a liar to my face, now know the truth.

I'll wait for their apologies. Yeah, right.

Do I feel sorry for my ex employer? No. Do I feel sorry for the particular staff who pointed the finger at me, the ones who are left without? No. Am I glad we made the decision to leave and face loosing everything? Yes.

I do feel for the people who are caught in the crossfire, especially since the field is AGED CARE Unfortunately I helped some of them into this position, until I realised what was happening and resigned.

But, all is not lost. After speaking a friend this weekend, he said the administrator was very positive that the particular place could be sold as a going concern, which is great for the residents. I don't know what will happen to the creditors.

I have now found employment, thank goodness and start on Monday.

Avenger - EMPLOYEES BEWARE

I seem to be having one of those days, or rather months. You know the ones, where you can't be bothered or are sort of down.

I still believe this state of "un-bliss" is caused by my former employer and very "tall tales". I guess I shouldn't be saying anything about that though.

The hot topic at the moment is employees bad mouthing their employers on their web pages, My Space / Facebook etc. Apparently they are being tracked down and eventually sacked.

I think this is rather funny, seeing my former employer took his former company's board of directiors to court for unfair dismissal. It turns out his private secretary had taped hundreds of hours of private employee conversations along with secretly videotaping board meetings when he (boss) was not present. He said he didn't know anything about that in court. This is all documented in court proceedings and made headlines around Australia. He is known as a 'colourful' charactor.

At the time I commenced employment with them, I didn't know a thing about this, not being an avid news junkie. So, I get this job offer, was promised the world and got basically nothing in return. For nearly 10 months I was strung along with broken promises. I trusted them, and I was loyal.

As I said earlier, I knew nothing about the former prodeedings what so ever, until I was asked to pack up another employees belongings, in amongst the bunch of stuff was a stack of newspapers, the Age, Australian, etc. On the front page of every one were article's about my employer and what had transpired in the Court prodeedings, plus other stuff as well.

I was absolutely stunned. That night I did some research on the net and read many articles from newspapers about the above. The only one I can remember was called "On her Majesty's Secret Service", it was about industrial espionage and although not about the above in particular, it was mentioned. Anyway, the more I read, the more concerned I became.

I guess I went into panic mode, anyway a lot transpired and I handed in my resignation. My employers last words to me were, of course making sure no one else was close enough to hear : "We could sue you, you know, about the garbage coming out of your mouth". The only 'garbage' was actually true, it's in the court transcriptions, and they lost. If I had of known about this prior to being employed, I would have run a mile, and would not want to be mixed up with this mob at all.

I have left a huge chunk of this story out, so everyone remains annonymous. There are a lot of major players and recognisable 'big' names ( and I really do mean big) involved. Oh, and did I mention they did not pay into my Super for nearly 7 months, and nor have they since I resigned? Oops, but I'm not allowed to tell you anything about that, I signed a contract.

Employers have a duty towards their employees, but not this mob. They chew you up, spit you out, and don't bat an eyelid along the way. Masters of manipulation.

BROKEN WINGS

Maybe I haven't moved to wordpress, after all that effort. Neo Earth doesn't advertise their product will not work on Wordpress. They will not refund you either, nor will they answer emails. Buyer beware. Waste of $40.

So, I hve moved back to blogger, but the comments have disappeared again. Why on earth do they show up on Wordpress, and disappear here????

Last night I could only see my post titles, no words. See what happens when you edit things whilst tired. I changed the background and the words disappeared.

Duh! Can't have black writing on a black page!

This seems to have turned into my diary, I hope to get back to doing some serious posting soon.

Escape

I have finally escaped, but how come I don't feel any different?

It took a couple of weeks to get her face out of my head every time I shut my eyes. Now, her face only appears now and then.

I can't sleep, so tried Valarian a couple of times. I had nightmares, spiders and tigers, so decided to give it a miss. I hate spiders.

I am gardening frantically, trying to get so tired that I will sleep. It's not happening, and I dread going to bed. I used to meditate to get to sleep, but can't manage to do that any more. Some refresher meditation classes might be in order, I think.

Not working is having a very bad effect on the bank balance, not sure what will happen with the house. Can't keep paying a mortgage with no income. So...........we'll wait for a few more weeks and see what happens.

On a more positive note, I have started on the 'quit smoking pill. I'm only on day 2, and have not noticed any side effects, and so far it has not stopped my cravings. I had to set a day to stop smoking, which I have done. Saturday 18th April. Hmmm!!!

I guess it's not so bad, as B said, we're still alive, have running water and electricity. Until we are unable to pay the bills, that is. :)

Still Trapped - A Lesson Learned

I haven't escaped yet, but it's getting closer. The boss sends me messages through G. Ask her to return the uniform please. What does she think I would do with it? Wear the bloody thing for fun? Yeah, right.

Actually, I send her messages through G too. Can you tell me when to expect my termination pay? I didn't get an answer.

I can feel myself retreating from the rest of the world. All I want to do is be by myself, the phone keeps ringing, I don't answer it. If someone knocks on the door, I ignore it.

One day........down the track, I'll tell you about this particular job, what I did, how people are ripped off. BUT only after I get paid out, including the 7 months worth of Super that hasn't been paid into my nominated fund.

Look at your next job offer, research the company and directors before you make the worst mistake of your lives, like G and I did. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. We may just go into bankruptcy because of these smooth talkers.

Denim

It looks like life is back to sleeping in. I have had two interviews, and one no thank you. One more interview on Thursday afternoon.

So.......back to sleeping in, and wearing jeans. I still have not quite escaped this hell hole, but only have 4 days to go. This is pay week though, so getting paid on time or even at all, remains to be seen.

It will be great to finally go home to stay, I have really missed it, and the DOG. Fancy having him two houses away, and having visitation rights only. However, we did agree that if we were to return, they would keep the dog. Fair is fair. I have to say, I don't miss the hair. Long haired Saints are continually shedding. I swear you could spin the hair and knit a jumper out of it.

I have finally got somewhere with the Dept of Immigration, and am allowed to sit my citizenship test on the 26th May. About time too! I had a very understanding person on the other end of the phone, who showed a lot of common sense. No around and around the "what is your passposrt number", I don't have one, "what is your permanent residency number", I don't have one, etc. No arguments this time.:)

Anyway, back to sleeping in.........

Yellow Heart - Black Heart

I've changed colour this time, yellow instead of black, but nothing has changed.

Well, maybe some things have changed. On reflection, a lot has changed.

This pretense we call life, struggling to keep an image, working to live or living to work, which ever one it is.

Longer hours, with nothing to show except extra stress. Everyone afraid if they don't put in extra time, a replacement will be found. The replacement will, of course endeavour to live up to your image and in turn be caught in the trap.

I got over it. The big money, the entrenched lies that go with the job, the pretend 'everything is perfect' world. Oh, forgot the blame game, the happy, joyous corporate world , where everything that goes wrong in the higher echelons is always someone else's fault.

Have you ever noticed your employer will NEVER take the blame, even though he/she made the mistake? I only had one boss that ever did that, and he was a car dealer. Just goes to show that car salesmen have more integrity than you imagined.

Annonymous

Interesting day. Hmmm........ Annonymous. No faces, no names.


Today I voiced my opinion regarding the non payment of wages, and my negative outlook at the present time because of this. It ended up a total fiasco.

My husband resigned. The boss went nuts.

A little later..........I was asked to resign, I refused. She basically said she would make life very difficult, and that I couldn't do my job properly. Which I can, by the way. My performance targets are way up, on one side, the other side is unmarketable in it's present form, as has been documented in numerous meetings, by her. But, like all good bosses, she changed her mind and blamed it on me.

The thing is, unless they actually produce the product, and the purchaser pays in full, I don't get commission. People get sick of waiting, pull out, and I lose out. I reckon around $14,000 this financial year.

Black Heart - Black Wings

Well, it's come around again. Payday. No wages in the bank again. Not even an email this time.

I rang H/O and asked, the person I spoke to was in the same boat as me. Exec's were not available to talk to. Remember, I changed my direct debit days? Maybe I should make it the week after??

In the meantime I had my interview, I blew it completely because I was over stressed re no wages. I could have kicked myself for giving incorrect answers to questions I actually know backwards.

The icing on the cake: An email right at knock off time!! Guess what?? Due to a technical hitch were were unable to process the payroll on Monday night, Tuesday night and also tonight. We may possibly have it sorted out tomorrow.

Crashed, Trapped & Burned

Have you ever got to that place in your life, when you feel you have crashed and burned? I don't mean literally.

That place where you feel you can go no further, you are stuck. Everything seems to be at a standstill. Stuck in a job you don't like, in a place that you hate more and more each day.

You feel you will be at this place forever, no moving on. You've given up on being well off, with a reasonable house and NO mortgage. I forgot to ad the credit card, definitely NO creditcard. Well, no credit card debt, anyway.

The car, another thing I'd love to ditch. Payments, that is.

I have a job interview next week, I guess in the end it will become the same. A means to an end. It just feels as if it will never end.

I'm not sure if I have ever loved my job. I can't remember when I last jumped out of bed, and couldn't wait to get to work. I don't think it has ever happened.

The icing on the cake: Not being paid on time. Three times in a row. Can you believe they told us to move our direct debits forward 2 days, because they couldn't guarantee we'd be paid on time? I believe the words were "We'll go broke together" Can you believe that shit?

I rebelled and got to work very, very late. When asked my reason, I said if she couldn't pay me on time, I couldn't get to work on time.

On another topic, Victoria still has 15 fires buning. Different areas being threatened, more stress on families. Now they are talking about only re- building the homes that were insured, how un fair is that? Over two thousand homes lost, and two and a half thousand sheds, multiple businesses.

I guess that's my bit said for the end of the month.

Victoria Burning - Protection for the Arsonist- No protection for the Victims

They are not releasing his name We should know. We need to ow. We want to know. PLEASE

What does 'fragile state of mind' mean? Does he have a disability, a mental illness? WHAT? Is he a husband, a father, we should know. He deserves to be lynched.

I went searching for a Fiery Angel pic, and found this. I thought Angel of Revenge, then realised it had one of the Psalms attached, Psalm 90. It's about protection. I guess that would be protection for the ARSONIST.

NO PROTECTION FOR THE VICTIMS.

Does that seem fair? Why should he deserve to be protected, any more than another criminal?

There must be someone out there that knows his name. We want to know. In fact, we demand to know. So, who is he?

Victoria Burning - Man Charged - Churchill Fire

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/13/2491107.htm
A man accused of lighting the Churchill-Jeerelang bushfire in Gippsland, in Victoria's east has been remanded in custody.The fire started in plantation near Churchill on Saturday and quickly spread to nearby communities. Twenty-one people are confirmed to have died in that fire.

The man was arrested this morning and taken to the Morwell police station where he was questioned for several hours. He has been charged with one count of arson causing death, one count of intentionally lighting a bushfire and one count of possessing child pornography.
The man did not appear in court.

The court heard the man is in a fragile mental state and magistrate Clive Alsop made an order that he be assessed by a psychologist.The man will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.

Assistant Police Commissioner Dannye Maloney says the man has been moved to Melbourne due to security concerns."People are pointing fingers, people are jumping to conclusions, rumours and innuendos are ebbing... we do not need that," he said. "Let Victoria Police do its role, we identified this person, we are prosecuting this person on behalf of the community."

Police are still urging anyone with any information on the fires across the state to come forward.
The total bushfire death toll stands at 181.

Victoria Burning - Devastation - No Words

Victoria Burning - My Skyline

If we weren't burning, the sky would be beautiful. I'm all fired out, and need something light.

I have lost all my comments, along with the line breaks in my posts. I need some help with this. Blogger doesn't help me, as my brain doesn't work in "html".

It's more than likely me that has stuffed something up on the settings. That took 5 minutes, now back to the fires.

There are 29 fires still burning in Victoria. Two major fires look like they are going to join. The Police have found two people who are assisting them with their enquiries. Someone told me an 11 year old boy was being interviewed, but I don't know if this is actually the case.

Which ever way you look at it, it's sad. They have not yet released the names of the deceased, nor are there any death notices for the fire victims. I wish I had some good news.

Victoria Burning - I Hate Greenies & Arsonists

I can't begin to tell you how we are feeling. The shock has started to wear off a little, but along with that comes severe anger and frustration.

At this time, I'm so glad I don't know a Greenie. Those bloody City people, who know nothing about the bush, who have managed to get laws passed that will not allow us to cut down trees surrounding country properties, thus endangering lives. 29 fires are still burning.

Those dickheads who chain themselves to trees, professional protesters, who are paid. They have also managed to destroy a hundred odd years of tradition, Alpine Cattle Grazing, by having that banned as well, and turning it into the Alpine National Park, because of some little plants or frogs (something like that). Who frigging cares? Aren't human lives worth more than a frogs, or an endangered plant?

You say no? Then F off all Greenies and Arsonists. You deserve the Death Penalty. 181 lives lost, over a thousand homes, then we come to livelihoods, livestock. You WANKERS. The undergrowth is long, we have been in drought for 12 years. The only house left standing in one area had removed the trees around the house. They were taken to court, charged with Environmental Damage and fined. It cost them $100,000, but saved their lives.

Well Greenies and Arsonists, happy now? I suggest you go chain your selves to the trees that have cost victims their lives and others their livlihoods, enjoy yourselves.

PS: WHO IS GOING TO VOTE GREEN IN THE NEXT ELECTION, OR GIVE THEM PREFERENTIAL VOTES?

PlEASE EXCUSE MY FRENCH (SWEARING).

Victoria Still Burning

Still burning. Unbelievable pictures taken by everyday ordinary Australians. We have our television channels back now, watching the utter devestation has me in tears a lot of the time.

The names of the dead are slowly filtering through, along with the pictures. I have lived here for so long, and know so many people, it's scary. I may not know the name, but the faces are familiar. You know the ones that you pass on the way to school, or the supermarket. The people you smile at when you pass them on the street, or wait in the queue at the bank with.

I'm too scared to watch, and find myself in tears often. I don't think there is a person in country Victoria that hasn't been touched by this fire in some way. Somehow there is always a smile at the end of the tears. It leaves me nearly speechless.

Eye See You - Tea and Sympathy

Hi Readers,

You all know that I feed off others posts, especially if I see a perceived "wrong". I had an email from a friend telling me to check out a blog and particular thread. Of course, I did. I always take a hint when offered, as sometimes I don't bother to read the comments at all, or even make a comment, but enjoy reading the article.

Someone was caught out badly, and if I'm correct will be even more caught out later this week. People really should not tell fibs, especially when doing so for sympathy. You have to be very careful. I can vouch for that, personal experience talking. I tried being 3 people at once, very confusing. I told fibs AND got caught out. I found an apology was the only way to recover my otherwise unsullied reputation. HAHA. I actually no longer care, though it has taken me some time to get over the "caring" bit.

You never remember your fibs, unless you are very, very clever. Obviously I'm not that clever, and neither is the person concerned.

Me thinks a little tea and sympathy is called for. Everyone seems to take on a different persona when blogging. You can say nasty / nice things, and be tagged as exactly that for the rest of your blogging career. People remember what you said, and when you said it. There is always a time when you have a lapse from your "persona," and make a mistake. Very forgivable, if admitted.

Usually you start out on a straight line, then a little down the track it deviates. A fib here, a fib there, and you're trapped. You either have to stick with it and keep going, take on a different persona and start fresh, or apologise. I chose to apologise, that was a couple of years ago now.

As per usual after my lost comments, contact is via email.

Victoria Burning - Gippsland Monday, 6pm

ABC radio has announced there are 21 dead in this area, 130 all up and they expect to find more. It will take months for investigators to sift through burnt homes. We are virtually cut off from TV, with one Melbourne channel, 10. No local channels at all, so cannot envision the rest of the State.

The Churchill fire has broken containment lines, and local communities are again on high alert. They have been told it is too late to run.

I spoke with a client in Yarram today, who told me two locals had died, she provided me with their names, I cried. A little later I gathered the courage to ring one of their relatives, right name, wrong family. I still cried.

On my way to post some mail after work, a fire truck roared past me with lights flashing and siren on. Tears again. I'm feeling sick with apprehension. I couldn't imagine living in a war zone for months on end.

Victoria Burning Sunday 4pm.

We had Channel 9 back for a while, but it has disappeared again. News on the net says there are 9 dead in Gippsland so far. I hope and pray they are not amongst my friends, but they are someone's friends and family. My heart goes out to them.